www.iva.co.uk

I would be very grateful if you could help me.

When I met my husband 14 years ago he had a house in his sole name. When he bought this house which we have now lived in for 8 years he put down the deposit etc from the previous house and he took this house out in his sole name also. He has always paid the mortgage for the house etc.

After getting myself into quite a lot of debt I made myself bankrupt in April of this year on the understanding which I obtained from 3 different sources that because the house was only in my husbands name and had always been such that the house would be safe. However since my bankruptcy we have been passed onto a Trustee who says I have a beneficial interest in the property and they have written to my husband to see if they can put a charge on the property by way of land registry. My husband has written to them informing them that it is not his debt and that he has always paid the mortgage, put the deposit down and the house is in his sole name.

The Trustees have now been in touch and they wish us to attend a meeting with them.

We are now in a situation that we don't know what to do and what they can do to us.

Could you give us any guidance as to the best possible way to deal with this situation. I feel terrible as it was my debt and not my husbands and I didn't know he would be dragged into this as much as he has been.

I thank you in advance.

Di

Do you have any information at all which you could tell us as to what we should be doing.

Is there any evidence that you can think of that might point to the fact that you directly or indirectly contributed to the mortgage or capital improvements to the property. I suspect that this is the line that the Trustee is adopting.

I would suggest that your husband writes to the Trustee and asks them to confirm in writing to him, before agreeing to any meeting with them ,why they consider that you have a beneficial interset in the property.

I think that it would be unwise for your husband to attend such a meeting without this because the Trustee could well be on a fishing trip and your husband really should be legally represented at that meeting.

Of course, you have to agree to the reasonable requests of the Trustee but I would suggest that you try to do this in correspondence to ensure that you have some time to consider your responses, but if the Trustee insists on a face to face meeting I think that you will eventually have to attend.

As one who regularly acts as Trustee in bankruptcy as well as Supervisor of IVA's, I have to say that I would probably be taking a similar stance given the time that you have both been living together. Do you have any children as a matter of interest, or any agreement between you that you have no interest in the property?

Is this a private sector Trustee or the Official Reciever? If the former, then they must feel that they have a good case or they would not have agreed to accept the appointment, unless creditors are funding their administration.

As Catullus states, however, the onus is on the Trustee to prove their claim, and not your husband's to provide that the Trustee does not have one. This will require the Trustee to gather up sufficient evidence of your payments for property upkeep and improvements during the period you have been living together. I agree that he should not attend a meeting at present until he has sought specialist legal advice.

Interestingly if you were involved in matrimonial proceedings against your husband you would more than likely be awarded some form of interest in the property, so I don't really see the difference under bankruptcy proceedings to be frank.

I think that you should attend a meeting with the Trustee if they wish you to - this will enable you to determine the strength of their claim (if any) and allow you to properly put your case forward. A convincing meeting at this stage, might just persuade the Trustee to put the file away and not risk losing an expensive Court case where he would also pick up your costs as well.

How much is the property worth, and what equity is there after the mortgage is taken into account? And what was the value of your overall creditors? Also who did you take advice from prior to petitioning?

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk